By Miles Layton

EDENTON — Laurie Buckhout stood before a packed room of Chowan County Republicans Saturday night at Nixon’s Catering and made her closing pitch for a rematch few in North Carolina politics need explained: her second run at Rep. Don Davis in one of the most closely watched U.S. House races in the country.

The retired Army colonel was the headliner at the Chowan County GOP’s annual dinner with the candidates, sharing the podium with Sheriff Ed Basnight, state Rep. Ed Goodwin, state Sen. Norman Sanderson, Superior Court Judge Robert Trivette, District Court candidate Kyle Jones, and county commission candidates Lisa Perry and Larry McLaughlin. A gallery of photos from the event appears at the end of the story.  

More will be written about their speeches and all that is ahead in a future story — for now, I focused on Buckhout. Before Buckhout gave her speech, she spoke to the Albemarle Observer. I can say she’s in good spirits and working hard across the district, meeting people and building a coalition of voters from all backgrounds into a movement to turn this congressional district from blue to red. If elected, Buckhout would be the first Republican to represent the 1st Congressional District in at least 100 years.   

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Back to our story — County commissioners and other local officials filled tables around the room as candidates worked through their pitches ahead of a midterm election both parties are treating as pivotal.

Buckhout lost North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District to Davis by less than two points in 2024, in what the Associated Press called the state’s only true toss-up House race that year. She opened Saturday by reminding the crowd how close it was. “We came within a point and a half,” she said.

Buckhout then turned to why she believes this time is different. State lawmakers redrew the district over the summer, folding in Carteret, Craven, Beaufort, Hyde and Pamlico counties along with a slice of Onslow County around Swansboro. “So we have been redistricted to what’s called an R-plus,” Buckhout told the room. “It’s not a toss-up anymore.” Independent analyses of the new map bear that out: where the old 1st District would have gone for Davis narrowly, the new lines produced a district that voted roughly 55% to 44% for Trump in the 2024 presidential race — a swing of more than ten points against Davis.

Buckhout leaned hard into her own biography as a contrast with Congressman Davis, whom she repeatedly cast as a career insider. “He’s done nothing but politics for 25 years,” she said. “He’s never had to dig into his 401(k) to make payroll.” She told the crowd she deployed after Sept. 11, worked on force-protection programs for military families and later helped build Army cyber initiatives before retiring and starting a business that, she said, went on to hire more than 150 veterans. “I didn’t just sign the back of the check,” Buckhout said. “I signed the front of the check a lot. He’s never done that.”

She also pushed back on one of the attack ads circulating against her, which she said questioned whether an out-of-state background made her a poor fit for the seat. “I got a dog from here,” she told the crowd, drawing laughs. “He’s a good, smart dog, but I don’t know if he’d make a good congressman. But he is from here.”

Buckhout argued the more relevant contrast was money, telling supporters that the bulk of her own campaign’s funding has come from within North Carolina, while claiming more than 90% of Davis’s financial support comes from outside the state — the same as in 2024.

According to the FEC,  here’s how Davis’ money breaks down:

In State: $24,100 (6.6%)

• • 53 donors

Out of State: $338,964 (93.4%)

• 239 donors

Of that figure —

• $46,709 from CA (12.9%)
• $70,431 from GA (19.4%)
• $36,727 from MA (10.1%)
• $77,885 from NY (21.5%

According to Davis’ finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission, billionaire George Soros’ oldest son Jonathan Soros and his wife Jennifer, both of New York, have each contributed $3,500 to Davis’ campaign.

Buckhout also dismissed a recent poll commissioned by Democrats showing Davis ahead, telling the crowd it lacked crosstabs or demographic detail she said would let voters judge its methodology. “We don’t trust it,” she said.

Buckhout addressed head-on the controversy that had trailed her into the room: her suspension last month from the prediction market Kalshi, after regulators found she had placed a small wager — $200 — on her own race, violating the platform’s rules barring candidates from betting on contests they can influence. 

Buckhout made the point that she did nothing illegal and violated no US code or law, but instead violated the website’s rules stating that folks can’t get involved in any issue where they can personally determine the outcome. 

Buckhout settled with a roughly $2,600 penalty and a three-year ban. 

“I bet on myself. Literally,” Buckhout told the crowd, echoing the statement she gave reporters when the settlement became public. “It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right.” She said she wouldn’t be doing it again — “but I’d still bet on you,” she told the room, “I’d bet on the 1st District any day of the week.”

She described what she called an intense financial push from national Republicans, saying a Trump-aligned political operation had committed several million dollars to the race and that she expected total spending on both sides to run into the tens of millions before November. She pointed to visits from Trump and repeated trips by Vice President JD Vance as evidence of how much the national party is investing in the seat, describing a moment backstage with Trump where, she said, he agreed on the spot to appear onstage with her. “I just love you, Mr. President,” she recalled telling him. 

On the stakes of the broader midterms, Buckhout argued that control of the House is what stands between conservative priorities — closing the border, tightening election rules, and keeping transgender girls and women out of women’s restrooms — and a Democratic-led House she predicted would be run by a more liberal speaker than Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “Hakeem Jeffries is now moderate for them,” she said. “They will have one of their crazies as speaker. It’s not just two more years of nothing happening. It’s two more years of very bad things happening.”

She closed with a personal story about a son who struggled his freshman year of college and was asked to leave school. She said she sent him to volunteer at a Cambodian orphanage, where he later visited the country’s Khmer Rouge killing fields, and used the story to warn about how quickly free societies can slide toward authoritarianism if people disengage. 

“I’ve seen it. A lot of you have seen it,” she told the room, before pivoting to a direct appeal for turnout up and down the ballot. “I don’t just ask for your vote,” Buckhout said. “I’m begging for your vote, because we need it.”

The rest of the night belonged to the local and down-ballot Republicans sharing the stage with her. Basnight and Goodwin, both seeking reelection, along with Sanderson, made brief remarks encouraging turnout, while commission candidates Perry and McLaughlin introduced themselves to a room that included sitting Chowan County commissioners. District Court Judge candidate Kyle Jones and Superior Court Judge Robert Trivette closed out the judicial portion of the program.

More on these candidates’ remarks ahead.

Gallery — click to enlarge